JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL 
Part I.—HISTORY, LITERATURE, &e. 
No. III.—1887. 
Kashmiri Riddles.—By the Rev. J. Hinton Knowles, F. R. G. S., 
M. R. A. S., etc. 
Riddles almost as mucli as Proverbs help to discover the wit and 
genius of a people, “ and open up to us their real speech.” 
The following pages contain nearly all the riddles now extant in 
the valley of Kashmir proper. They have been collected from various 
sources. The Pandit, the Musalman, the learned, the ignorant, the 
townsman, the peasant have all contributed their twos or threes. This 
will account for the slight differences in some of the words. The 
language differs more or less in every ypargana. 
The exceedingly local character of the collection will not fail 
to be noticed. 
A few notes have been interspersed in the hope that they will 
interest some readers. The romanizing is on the plan followed in the 
“ Dictionary of Kashmiri Proverbs and Sayings.” 
The Roman-Kashmiri alphabet. 
A a pronounced as a in woman. 
A a pronounced as a in art. 
Ai ai pronounced as ai in aisle. 
Au au pronounced as ou in out. 
B b pronounced as h in but. 
Ch ch pronounced as ch in c/mrch. 
D d pronounced as d in dew,—the 
point of the tongue is press¬ 
ed on the upper fore-teeth. 
Q 
D d pronounced as d in bad,—the 
point of the tongue is struck 
back on the palate. 
E e pronounced as e in there. 
E e pronounced as e in pet. 
F f pronounced as / in find —the 
English / is only sounded 
(and then very badly), in 
the middle or at the end of 
